Golf club washing machine



July 25, 1967 R, E. REITER 3,332,099

GOLF CLUB WASHING MACHINE Filed Oct. 15, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. lease-e74. lee/7'52 y 6 R. E. REITER GOLF CLUB WASHING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 15, 1965 INVENTOR. Qaezerffsv m2 United States Patent Calif.

Filed Oct. 15, 1965, Ser. N0. 496,452 9 Claims. (Cl. 15-21) This invention relates generally to machines for cleaning the heads of golf clubs.

The machine of the invention is of a type providing power-driven brushes for cleaning the heads of irons, and a separate set of power-driven brushes for cleaning the heads of woods. In each case, the brushes are so arranged that the club head can be inserted between them for scrubbing. The brushes are enclosed inside a housing, with access doors for the heads of the clubs in front of the pairs of brushes. A cleaning fluid is circulated to the brushes. The sets of brushes for the irons and the woods are spaced apart properly to receive these two types of club.

An object of the present invention is to provide a machine of the general type mentioned, having a unique brush arrangement for the woods by which scrubbing on all surfaces of the heads of the wood is very greatly facilitated.

A further object is to provide a guiding arrangement by which the wood club heads are constrained to move between the brushes.

The various features of the invention will be understood by referring to a present illustrative embodiment thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a present illustrative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a transverse section taken in accordance with line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view taken in accordance with the broken line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section taken in accordance with line 44 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary elevational view taken in accordance with the arrows 66 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view taken in accordance with the broken line 7-7 of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7a is a fragmentary detail taken in accordance with line 7a-7a of FIG. 7.

The illustrative golf club washing machine illustrated has an exterior housing 10 comprising sides 11, a back 12, a bottom 13, a low vertical front panel 14, a rearwardly sloping front panel or door 15, hinged at one side to a side 11, as at 16, and a top 17. Thesewalls are fluidtight below the upper edge of panel 14, and form a tank for liquid cleaner L. The front panel is formed with two rectangular, vertically aligned club-head receiving or access windows 18 and 19, one for the woods, in this instance upper window 18, and one for the irons, in this instance lower window 19. The windows 18 and 19 are preferably framed with rubber moldings 20. A coin box C is mounted on top. 17, and controls energization of electric drive motor M for a predetermined time interval, as 5 minutes. The details of the coin controlled mechanism and motor control circuit are not a part of the present invention and need not be further disclosed.

A generally rectangular box frame 22ris mounted inside the housing, parallel to slanting door and as here shown, its side walls 23 have welded thereto channels 24, detachably fastened to brackets 25 on the side walls of exterior housing 10. To the back wall 26 of box frame 22 is welded a channel 28 detachably fastened to a bracket 29 on exterior housing back wall 12. The box frame 22 mounts all of the working parts of the machine, and is installed in the housing 10 through the access opening formed by opening or removal of the front panel 15.

The front side of the box frame 22, which is relatively close-spaced behind front panel 15, is comprised of two vertical panels 30, spaced by a vertical medial slot or window 31, whose vertical edges align with the opposite vertical edges of the club head windows 18 and 19 in front panel 15, and the adjacent edges of the panels 30 are provided with channels 32 to which is fixed a flexible rubber wall 33 that extends across the window 31, and is formed with certain cuts designed to pass the heads of the clubs to be cleaned. Thus (see FIG. 6), in the upper half of the wall 33, as well as in the lower half thereof, there are three parallel horizontal cuts 34, and an intermediate vertical cut 35, forming flexible doors or flaps 36. These flaps 36 readily pass the head of a club, and then close, the upper pair of flaps closing closely about the club shaft, and the lower pair closing completely. Thus splash-out from the brush action inside is adequately contained.

On and to one side 23 of box frame 22 is mounted the electric drive motor M, arranged with its shaft 41 extending upwardly, parallel to sloping front panel 15, and this shaft 41 carries a pulley 42 connected by belt 43 to a larger pulley 44 on a main drive shaft 45. The latter is journaled in suitable bearings on the upper and lower walls 46 and 47, respectively, of box frame 22, and carries certain brushes, as well as driving, at its lower end, a later described circulation pump, designated generally at P. The drive shaft 45 is preferably located just to the right, or outside, the aligned right-hand boundaries of the access windows 18 and 19, as viewed in FIG. 4, and as may be fully understood from considering also FIGS. 1 and 3.

On drive shaft 45, just below pulley 44, is a pulley 56 connected by a belt 57 to pulleys 58 and 59 on a pair of shafts 60 and 61, respectively, also journaled in bearings mounted on the upper and lower walls of frame 22. The shaft 60 is located directly across from shaft 45, just outside the left-hand boundary of the line of the club head access windows 18 and 19, the two shafts 45 and 60 being substantially equally spaced to the rear of the slopping front panel 15. The shaft 61 is spaced in back of the plane defined by the shafts 45 and 60, and somewhat closer to shaft 45 than shaft 60, the angle made by lines joining shafts 45 and 60 with shaft 61 being approximately a right angle in the present illustrative embodiment. The shaft 45 mounts, in line with window 18, a relatively fiat or narrow cylindrical brush 64, adapted for peripheral engagement with the rearward side or back of the head w of a wood club (FIG. 5).

On shaft 60, directly across from brush 64, is a cylindrical rotary brush 66, which is preferably substantially longer than the brush 64, extending both above and below the latter. The spacing of the shafts 45 and 60, and the diameters of the brushes 64 and 66, is such as permits the head of a wood to be inserted therebetween by a substantial deflection of the bristles of the two brushes (see FIG. 5 showing typical relative spacings). It will be seen that while the brush 64 engages and will scour the rearward side of the club, the brush 66 engages the driving face of the club and surrounding front surfaces thereof.

In line with lower window 19, the shaft 45 mounts a long cylindrical rotary brush 67, preferably with strong and stiff synthetic plastic bristles, such as Nylon. It may here be mentioned that the bristles for the wood-scrubbing brushes should be of any conventional softer type, so as to avoid scratching the woods. On shaft 60, directly across from brush 67, is a cylindrical brush 68 identical to brush 67, and the peripheries of these brushes are closely spaced, so that when the head of an iron is inserted and moved about between them, all surfaces of the head are quickly scoured.

The top and bottom surfaces of the woods are scoured by two flat upper and lower rotary disk brushes 70 and 71, respectively, spaced axially on the shaft 61 just above and below brush 64. The brushes 70 and 71 have disklike heads 70a and 71a mounted axially on the shaft 61, in planes at right angles thereto, and these heads mount axial bristles, i.e., bristles which extend generally parallel with the axis of the shaft 61. For purpose of identification and definition, herein and in the claims, radially bristled brushes of the type of 64, 66, 67 and 68 are referred to as cylindrical brushes, and brushes 70 and 71 are referred to as disk brushes. The brushes 70 and 71 are disposed with their bristles in opposition to one another, and are positioned a distance apart which is less than the vertical thickness of the head of a wood club (FIG. 7), so that the bristles will be substantially deflected by a wood head thrust therebetween, and thereby caused to work over and around the entire curved top and bottom surfaces of the head. The brushes are driven so that disk brushes 70 and 71 turn in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 5, so that the club head tends to be dragged inwardly by these brushes.

As will appear in FIG. 5, the shaft for the brushes 70 and 71 is located rearwardly of the shafts 45 and 60, and preferably shortly to the right of a perpendicular bisector of a line joining the axes of the two shafts 45 and 60. Also, the spacing and the diameters of the brushes are such that the peripheries of brushes 70 and 71 lie closely adjacent the shaft 45. The axes of the three shafts will be seen to be at the apices of a triangle, which is preferably, in the particular illustrative embodiment here shown, nearly or substantially a right triangle, with nearly a right angle at the shaft 61.

Further, the disk brushes 70 and 71 are so spaced and located that the narrow cylindrical brush 64 is positioned axially in line with the space between them; and nearly half of the narrow cylindrical brush 64 overlaps and runs between the disk brushes 70 and 71. The cylindrical brush 66, on the other hand, is close spaced to the peripheries of the disk brushes 70 and 71.

A novel arrangement is thereby provided whereby the head of a wood club can be effectively brushed on all its surfaces by a simple combination of rotary cylindrical and disk brushes. While the combination of brushes as described is capable of cleaning the head of a wood when the user thrusts it between the several brushes of the set, the cleaning operation is greatly facilitated and improved by use of certain guides which assure travel of the head into the proper cleaning positions between the brushes. Thus, for the woods, a first or bottom guide plate 75 is provided, and extends from the lower boundary of the wood entrance window 18 parallel to the planes of the upper and lower disk brushes 70 and 71, and the level of this guide plate is spaced a suitable distance below the plane of the tips of the bristles on the lower disk brush 71, as shown. The wood club head, after insertion through window 18, and which, with its flaps 36, functions as a first guide or directing means, is guided and received into a throat or tunnel T defined horizontally by the cylindrical brushes 64 and 66 and vertically first by the guide 75 and then by the disk brushes 70 and 71.' It will be seen that this throat or tunnel T is of smaller cross-section than that of the wood head, so that the brush bristles are deflected and spread over the surfaces of the club head. As the toe of the club emerges from between the cylindrical brushes 64 and 66, and is forced ahead still further between the disk brushes 70 and 71, it is guided just to the left of brush shaft 61, along the curved path represented by the arrow d, by engagement with a curved cam surface 78 formed at one side of a notch 79 in the edge of a guide wall 80 mounted in box frame 22. The

shaft 61 is received in a small notch 81 formed in cam surface 78, and the club is guided along the cam edge 78 just slightly to the side of shaft 61. Preferably, the cam face of the guide wall 80 is faced with a somewhat flexible fabric-reinforced rubber strip 82, which serves to protect against scratching of the toe of the club. This strip 82 is also made wide enough to prevent the toe of the club head from traveling either over or under the wall 80 and thus possibly becoming wedged in or stuck. Notch 79 is deep enough to accept the toe of the club well past the shaft 61.

By moving the club head back and forth in the path described, and at the same time turning it somewhat from side to side by its shaft and otherwise moving it about, it can be effectively brushed and cleaned on all surfaces with great rapidity under the combined action of the brushes and the cleaning fluid continuously distributed onto the latter.

It is possible that, on rare occasions, a user might try to insert the club head into the machine upside down. To guard against this possibility, I prefer to use a flexible vertical rubber wall 85 just in back of the window 18 and the rubber flap doors 36 (FIGS. 7 and 7a), with a vertical guide notch 86 therein for the shaft of the club. The lower edge of this wall 85 is spaced just above the brush 64, and the notch 86 extends upwardly from this lower edge, in the plane normally occupied by the shaft of a club when its head is properly thrust between the two brushes 64 and 66, as is the case in FIG. 5.

As here shown, the wall 85 comprises one side wall of an inverted molded rubber channel 90, the upper wall of which is fastened to the underside of a liquid cleaner well 91, and the other flexible side wall 92 of which comprises a further guide to aid in guiding the club head, if initially inserted too high, down and into the proper path between the brushes. The guide slot 86 does not interfere with proper manipulation of the club head between the brushes, and has the advantage that it indicates immediately to the user that the club head should be inserted sole down, so that the shaft will go nicely through the guide slot 86.

As mentioned earlier, the bottom portion of the outside housing serves as a tank for the cleaning liquid L. Pump P draws from this liquid cleaner (FIG. 3), and delivers to two lines 94 and 95. The former discharges over brush 67, wetting it thoroughly, and by splash-over, wetting the brush 68 as well. The other line 95 discharges into well 91, which is suitably perforated in the bottom so as to drip cleaning liquid both onto brush 64 and brush 70. The liquid, by running, dripping and splashing, wets the remaining brushes.

It will be understood that the particular machine illustrated and specifically described herein will be understood to be for illustrative purposes only, and that various changes in design, structure and arrangement can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a golf club head cleaning machine, a pair of parallel, rotatably mounted, power rotated shafts, a cylindrical brush mounted on one of said shafts; a pair of opposed, axially spaced disk brushes mounted on the other of said shafts and whose peripheries are immediately adjacent to said cylindrical brush, said brushes defining a slot for reception of a wood club head with the face thereof adjacent to said cylindrical brush and the top and bottom thereof simultaneously swept by said disk brushes, all in such manner that the face, top and bottom of said club head are simultaneously scrubbed by :said brushes, also a third rotatably mounted, power rotated shaft parallel to the first-mentioned shafts and defining therewith the third apex of a triangle, and

a relatively narrow, rotary cylindrical brush on said third shaft projecting between and being substantially overlapped by portions of said disk brushes, said relatively narrow brush being positioned to engage the back surface, of a wood club head thrust into said slot.

2. In a golf club head cleaning machine, the combination of:

a relatively elongated cylindrical brush mounted for rotation on its axis,

a pair of opposed coaxial and axially spaced disk brushes rotatably mounted on an axis parallel to that of said cylindrical brush and positioned peripherally adjacent to opposite end portions, respectively, of said cylindrical axis, said disk brushes being axially spaced to receive a wood golf club head therebetween with top and bottom surfaces of said head in bristle-deflecting engagement with said disk brushes,

a relatively narrow, rotatable cylindrical brush mounted on a third axis parallel to the first two mentioned axes, and defining a triangle therewith, said relatively narrow brush projecting between and being substantially overlapped by portions of said disk brushes,

said relatively narrow, cylindrical brush being spaced from said rotatively elongated brush to permit passage of a wood golf club head therebetween, with the driving face and back thereof in bristle-deflecting engagement with the respective relatively elongated and relatively narrow cylindrical brushes, and

means for rotating said brushes.

3. The subject matter of claim 2, including also means for guiding the club head into the space between said brushes.

4. The subject matter of claim 3, wherein said guiding means includes a flexible Wall with a slot therein for guiding reception of the shaft of the club.

5. The subject matter of claim 3, wherein said guiding means afford a guiding surface for the sole of the club head positioned to cause the lower portion of the club head to engage the corresponding disk brush at a level spaced inward of the tips of the bristles of said disk brush.

6. The subject matter of claim 2, including also a cam means engageable by the toe and rearward surface of the club head upon passage from between said cylindrical brushes for guidance of the club head between portions of said disk brushes.

7. In a cleaning machine for Wood heads of golf clubs fitted with shafts, the combination of:

a housing,

a pair of parallel, rotatably mounted, power rotated shafts,

a cylindrical brush mounted on one of said power rotated shafts,

a pair of opposed, axially spaced disk brushes mounted on the other of said shafts and whose peripheries are relatively closely adjacent to said cylindrical brush, said cylindrical and disk brushes defining a 5 slot for reception of a wood club head with the face thereof adjacent to said cylindrical brush and the top and bottom thereof simultaneously swept by said disk brushes, all in such manner that the face, top and bottom of said club head are simultaneously swept and scrubbed by said brushes, and

a window in said housing for entrance of said club head thereinto followed by its shaft, said window and said slot being positioned to define a guide path for said club head and its shaft when said head is thrust through said window and thence into said slot, said path extending diagonally of a line intersecting the axes of said shafts and between said axes, and said cylindrical brush being closer to said window than said disk brushes so that said head moves first into engagement with said cylindrical roller, and then, while still in such engagement with said cylindrical brush, between said disk brushes.

8. The subject matter of claim 7, including also a club head guide cam for engagement by the toe end of the club head for deflecting said club head laterally in the last portion of said path of travel.

9. In a golf club head cleaning machine, a pair of parallel, notably mounted, power rotated shafts, a cylindrical brush mounted on one of said shafts; a pair of opposed, axially spaced disk brushes mounted on the other of said shafts and whose peripheries are immediate ly adjacent to said cylindrical brush, said brushes defining a slot for reception of a wood club head with the face thereof adjacent to said cylindrical brush and the top and bottom thereof simultaneously swept by said disk brushes, all in such manner that the face, top and bottom of said club head are simultaneously scrubbed by said brushes, also a third rotatably mounted, power rotated shaft parallel to the first-mentioned shafts and defining therewith the third apex of a triangle, and

a rotary cylindrical brush on said third shaft positioned to close said slot and to engage the bark surface of a wood club thrust into said slot.

4 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 526,362 9/1894 Bicknell 15-34 1,217,803 2/1917 Meflord 15-36 3,055,029 9/1962 Maetzold 15-21 3,148,396 9/ 1964 Smith 15-213 CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner. E. L. 'ROBERTS, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A GOLF CLUB CLEANING MACHINE, A PAIR OF PARALLEL, ROTATABLY MOUNTED, POWER ROTATED SHAFTS, A CYLINDRICAL BRUSH MOUNTED ON ONE OF SAID SHAFTS; A PAIR OF OPPOSED, AXIALLY SPACED DISK BRUSHES MOUNTED ON THE OTHER OF SAID SHAFTS AND WHOSE PERIPHERIES ARE IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT TO SAID CYLINDRICAL BRUSH, SAID BRUSHES DEFINING A SLOT FOR RECEPTION OF A WOOD CLUB HEAD WITH THE FACE THEREOF ADJACENT TO SAID CYLINDRICAL BRUSH AND THE TOP AND BOTTOM THEREOF SIMULTANEOUSLY SWEPT BY SAID DISK BRUSHES, ALL IN SUCH MANNER THAT THE FACE, TOP AND BOTTOM OF SAID CLUB HEAD ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY SCRUBBED BY SAID BRUSHES, ALSO A THIRD ROTATABLY MOUNTED, POWER ROTATED SHAFT PARALLEL TO THE FIRST-MENTIONED SHAFTS AND DEFINING THEREWITH THE THIRD APEX OF A TRIANGLE, AND A RELATIVELY NARROW, ROTARY CYLINDRICAL BRUSH ON SAID THIRD SHAFT PROJECTING BETWEEN AND BEING SUBSTANTIALLY OVERLAPPED BY PORTIONS OF SAID DISK BRUSHES, SAID RELATIVELY NARROW BRUSH BEING POSITIONED TO ENGAGE THE BACK SURFACE OF A WOOD CLUB HEAD THRUST INTO SAID SLOT. 